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Wednesday Editorial: Climate chaos is happening all over

In this photo taken Thursday, March 31, 2016, Jeff Auger inspects young oysters being grown on the Damariscotta River in Walpole, Maine. Mook Sea Farm and the University of New Hampshire are working together to monitor and adapt to changes in water chemistry caused by climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions blamed for global warming also are making the ocean more acidic, which can interfere with the ability of shellfish like oysters to develop their shells. (AP Photo/Holly Ramer)

“You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.”

— Bob Dylan, “Subterranean Homesick Blues”

^

And you don’t have to be climate scientist to see flooding streets on sunny days.

And you don’t have to be a meteorologist to notice that a series of record-breaking weather events have been taking place in recent years.

Coincidence?

Not likely.

Sunny day flooding is becoming more common in Florida, as are storm surges.

A draft report from scientists from 13 federal agencies notes that climate change is already being felt in America.

“Evidence for a changing climate abounds from the top of the atmosphere to the depths of the oceans,” the report states. Human activities are primarily responsible for the recent climate changes.

In fact, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have passed 400 parts per million, last seen about 3 million years ago.

Thousands of scientific studies documented:

• Melting glaciers.

• Disappearing snow cover.

• Shrinking sea ice.

• Rising sea levels.

• An increase in atmospheric water vapor.

• Record-breaking climate extremes.

• The warmest years on record for the globe.

There are more frequent droughts that last longer, more flooding incidents, more chaotic events.

One study concluded that climate changes makes extreme weather 20 times more likely in Texas.

The report provides varying confidence levels.

There are also regional differences: For instance, parts of the West have been drier while parts of the Midwest have been wetter.

Since some of this is already happening, a businesslike, risk management approach takes it into account when planning for new development in flood-prone areas.

The authors of the federal report tapped into thousands of studies. The National Academy of Sciences signed off on it, reported The New York Times.

One warning sign is the fast rate of warming in the Arctic can lead to sea level rise.

The Arctic is warming at a rate twice as fast as the global average.

There has been a massive reduction of the Greenland Ice Sheet, reduced snow cover and permafrost thawing.

Alaskan glaciers are melting.

“Humanity is conducting an unprecedented experiment with the Earth’s climate system through emissions from large scale fossil-fuel combustion, widespread deforestation and other changes in the landscape,” the scientific report states.

The scientists state there is much we don’t know about this experiment.

There could be surprises in store for us.

And many of them may be bad surprises.

We know the planet is warming.

We know that extreme weather events are happening.

So at the very least, we need to start preparing wisely for the possible impacts.

Sea levels have been rising faster in the Southeast, report researchers from the University of Florida.

From 2011 to 2015, sea levels south of Cape Hatteras, N.C. rose six times faster than the long-term global increase.

The scientists determined the causes were the El Nino cycle and a shift in atmospheric pressure over the North Atlantic Ocean.

The two natural weather patterns may have worked together and interacted to cause the sea level rise.

So natural variations will continue to occur within the long-term impacts of a warmer climate.

Sorting out the two is the job of scientists.

OCEANFRONT PROPERTY

Scientists from the University of California Santa Cruz and the Nature Conservancy have produced a map that charts flood risks.

The map was created to identify properties that should probably be bought out rather than continually rebuilt in flood zones.

And it has identified 15,000 properties in Florida that filed more than 40,000 claims against the National Flood Insurance Program from 1978 to 2011. By the way, the program owes the U.S. Treasury $23 billion.

The researchers call for government-funded buyouts to be offered to willing sellers, followed by tearing down or moving the structures to re-establish a natural floodplain. Among the areas identified in Duval County are stretches of Downtown along the St. Johns River.

This Week's Circulars

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I’m writing this to Shad Khan — who came to the United States as an immigrant and has enjoyed success in this great nation — and the athletes he employs on that pathetic team he owns called the Jacksonville Jaguars: